Edible

Edible: Good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.
-Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary

That Strength is Here

All homes have places where discipline occurs. As I was growing up, it was the basement. When we were "sent to the basement," this is where my father would admonish us, discipline us, pray with us afterwards, and graciously invite us to rejoin the fellowship of the family. In other homes, the place varies according to convenience—it may be one of the back bedrooms, or the bathroom. But I have never heard of a godly home where the point of discipline was the dining room, during the course of dinner. Sometimes during dinner a child has to be taken from the table for discipline, but no one that I know of brings a child to the table for discipline. We bring our children to the table for food.

Discipline is important. Confession of sin is important. Working through hard issues of sin and restitution is important. But this Table is the place for fellowship, kindness, laughter, and joy. So come, and receive the gracious nourishment offered.

Some might object to this as too casual. They might say that Jesus said that if your brother had something against you, leave your gift on the altar, and go, put it right. Yes, and we really should do this. But notice that He said we should not give in this condition, not that we should not receive in this condition. So stop tithing, stop putting your gifts in the offering box in the back until you have put things right with your brother (as far as it is possible with you). Let this be your reminder to get things right. Leave your gift envelope in Your Bible until you get things right. But churches rarely tell the saints to stop giving them money until the donor is back in fellowship

But this is a radical gospel message. Until you put things right, we will not stop offering the grace of God to you. But if you have the power to do so, and you do not put things right with your brother, then stop tithing. Stop bringing your offerings. God would rather have your obedience than your money. Is the obedience hard? Do you need strength to undertake it? That strength is here.

Douglas Wilson, May 2006

Equality

We learnt that equality is about equal worth, not equal outcomes. Today our idea of society is shaped around mutual responsibility; a deal, an agreement between citizens, not a one-way gift, from the well-off to the dependent.

~Prime Minister Tony Blair, Brighton, October 2, 2001

Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to the liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

~Barry Goldwater, 1964

Inequality will exist as long as liberty exists. It unavoidably results from that very liberty itself.

~Alexander Hamilton

Ignorance Moving Machines

We are told, ad nauseam, that a computer has to go into every classroom to prepare us for the twenty-first century. We have not yet realized that the computers may simply be moving our ignorance around the planet at incredible rates of speed. As one wag put it, "We used to think that a million monkeys typing away at a million keyboards could produce the works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not the case." A fool in the back of a cart bumping along the road five hundred years ago is, today, a fool in the backseat of a Lexus. Certain things are not changed by the computer dashboard.

Douglas Wilson, Angels in the Architecture, 176.

Fat-souled Children

We want fat-souled children. We want them to have full, faithful lives--joyful, balanced, and lovely. But wisdom doesn't happen passively. It takes a diligent household and constant prayer, but with that He promises that "the soul of the diligent shall be made fat" (Prov. 13:4). That should be our prayer: Lord enable us to raise children with fat souls. "He that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat" (Prov. 28:25).

Doug Jones, Angels in the Architecture, 125

Stories

Stories frame a child's interior life for living in this world. Fiction is far more realistic than we realize. Fiction and poetry mysteriously transfer truth in a far more powerful way than anything else. God Himself chose to write in passionate poetry and narrative and parables rather than in the bureaucratic style of a systematic theology.

Doug Jones, Angels in the Architecture, 124.

Sacrificing for our Children

We talk of our willingness to die for the children, but are we willing to sincerely sacrifice careers and vacations and personal talents for their sakes without bitterness? The whole orientation of our household must be focused on sacrificing for our children. This is a sign of deep love.

Doug Jones, Angels in the Architecture, 123.

Learning to Celebrate

Part of learning to celebrate includes learning how to splurge and not be so tightly utilitarian. Our culture is so wicked in its neglect of savings and its slavery to plastic credit cards that we, with some right, run the other direction. But if your house is in order, it's time to learn how to splurge at times. Beauty isn't cheap, and neither are artistic meals and good wines.

Doug Jones, Angels in the Architecture, 84.

Herp Dinner

The first Herp Dinner, in 1977, was an outstanding success... The final spread was magnificent and included sautéed alligator tail...; legs of bullfrogs, leopard frogs, and green frogs; snapping turtle salad, (excellent on crackers); slider turtle stew; crispy fried mole salamanders; baked canebrake rattlesnake (a 4½-foot specimen coiled around tomatoes and green peppers); and deep-fried strips of cottonmouth moccasin.

Whit Gibbons, Their Blood Runs Cold - Adventures with Reptiles and Amphibians, 12

The Sacraments

He feeds our bodies through bread and other foods, he illumines the world through the sun, and he warms it through heat; yet neither bread, nor sun, nor fire, is anything save in so far as he distributes his blessings to us by these instruments. In like manner, he nourishes faith spiritually through the sacraments, whose one function is to set his promises before our eyes to be looked upon, indeed, to be guarantees of them to us.

Jean Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Ch. 14.12

Chastity

The first degree of chastity is sincere virginity; the second, faithful marriage. Therefore, the second sort of virginity is the chaste love of matrimony.

- Chrysostom, quoted in Institutes of the Christian Religion, book IV, ch. 12.28

Emoticons

As for our writing personally to each other, how often do you hear people complain that emails subtract the tone of voice; that it's hard to tell if someone is joking or not? Clicking on "send" has its limitations as a system of subtle communication. Which is why, of course, people use so many dashes and italics and capitals ("I AM joking!") to compensate. That's why they came up with the emoticon, too--the emoticon being the greatest (or most desperate, depending how you look at it) advance in punctuation since the question mark in the reign of Charlemagne.

Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 192 :-)

It's the Itses

Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, "Good food at it's best", you deserve to be struck by lighting, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.

Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 44

Amen!

Jerome commented that in the early church, when visitors used to come, they were commonly frightened at the amen--it had the sound of thunder, said by people who understood it.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: And let all the people say, Amen. Praise the Lord. (Ps. 106:48)

- Doug Wilson, Mother Kirk, 152

Go, Preach the Gospel to Every Creature

The nature of the apostles' function is clear from this command: "Go, preach the Gospel to every creature" [Mark 16:15]. No set limits are allotted to them, but the whole earth is assigned to them to bring into obedience to Christ, in order that by spreading the gospel wherever they can among the nations, they may raise up his Kingdom everywhere. Accordingly, Paul, in desiring to prove his apostleship, recalls that he did not gain any one city for Christ but propagated the gospel far and wide, and did not put his hands to another man's foundation but planted churches where the name of the Lord was unheard [Rom. 15:19-20]. Apostles, then, were sent out to lead the world back from rebellion to true obedience to God, and to establish his Kingdom everywhere by the preaching of the gospel, or if you prefer, as the first builders of the church, to lay its foundations in all the world [1 Cor. 3:10].

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, book 4, ch. 3.4

The Miracle of Wine

Wine itself is quite a miracle. It's something like the birth of a child. A man and woman mix and then create a being wholly distinct from themselves, yet with deep family traits--new and yet the same. A ripe grape contains two parts, unmarried--an interior sugar juice and an exterior skin full of yeast. But if you marry and mix these parts by crushing a grape, it will start toward creating wine, a third distinct thing, new and yet the same--a "wine that maketh glad the heart of man" (Ps. 104:15).

Doug Jones, Angels in the Architecture, 83

Even the English Know that for Good Food You Have to Leave the Country

God has surrounded us with so many amazing tastes, and yet we Americans are barely scratching the surface. The Anglo streak in the American heritage has certainly put a tight squeeze on the breadth of our palates. American food is really so bland and tame we don't even recognize it anymore. And we pass on our picky eating to the next generation. Pure criminality. But even the English know that for good food you have to leave the country. They like France, but the entire world awaits us. We have much to learn from the feastings of Asia and the Latin countries, especially that land of feasts--Italy.

-Doug Jones, Angels in the Architecture, 82

And, I might add, France. :)

Those Pesky Architects

Every new $900,000 summer house in the north woods or on the shore of Long Island has so many pipe railings, ramps, hob-tread metal spiral stairways, sheets of industrial plate glass, banks of tungsten-halogen lamps, and white cylindrical shapes, it looks like an insecticide refinery. I once saw the owners of such a place driven to the edge of sensory deprivation by the whiteness & lightness & leanness & cleanness & bareness & spareness of it all. They became desperate for an antidote, such as coziness & color. They tried to bury the obligatory white sofas under Thai-silk throw pillows of every rebellious, iridescent shade of magenta, pink, and tropical green imaginable. But the architect returned, as he always does, like the conscience of a Calvinist, and he lectured them and hectored them and chucked the shimmering little sweet things out.

- Tom Wolfe

Our Forgotten French Heritage

Article temporarily removed. Will post later with more author information.

Nothing Like a Good Locking Up

I am somewhat pleased when I occasionally hear of a brother's being locked up by the police, for it does him good, and it does the people good also. It is a fine sight to see the minister of the gospel marched off by the servant of the law! It excites sympathy for him, and the next step is sympathy for his message. Many who felt no interest in him before are eager to hear him when he is ordered to leave off, and still more so when he is taken to the station. The vilest of mankind respect a man who gets into trouble in order to do them good, and if they see unfair opposition excited they grow quit zealous in the man's defence.

Charles Spurgeon, Lectures To My Students, 264.

It looks like all the fuss the Intoleristas are making about Doug Wilson is creating a similar type of phenomena here in Moscow. :)

True Happiness

The true Christian is the only happy man, because he has sources of happiness entirely independent of his world. He has something which cannot be affected by sickness and by deaths, by private losses and by public calamities, the "peace of God, which passeth all understanding." He has a hope laid up for him in heaven ; he has a treasure which moth and rust cannot corrupt ; he has a house which can never be taken down. His loving wife may die, and his heart feel rent in twain ; his darling children may be taken from him, and he may be left alone in this cold world ; his earthly plans may be crossed ; his health may fail: but all this time he has a portion which nothing can hurt. He has one Friend who never dies ; he has possessions beyond the grave, of which nothing can deprive him: his nether spring may fail, but his upper springs are never dry. This is real happiness.

J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion, 250.

Happiness and Work

The most miserable creature on earth is the man who has nothing to do. Work for the hands or work for the head is absolutely essential to human happiness. Without it the mind feeds upon itself, and the whole inward man becomes diseased. The machinery within will work, and without something to work upon, will often wear itself to pieces.

J.C. Ryle, Practical Religion, 239.

Mock On, Voltaire, Rousseau

Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau;
Mock on, mock on, 'Tis all in vain.
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.

And every sand becomes a Gem
Reglected in the beams divine;
Blown back, they blind the mocking Eye,
But still in Israel's paths they shine.

The Atoms of Democritus
And Newton's Particles of light
Are sands upon the Red sea shore,
Where Israel's tents do shine so bright.

-William Blake

Approval of the Body

Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body--which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human body, that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, or beauty and our energy. Christianity has glorified marriage more than any other religion: and nearly all the greatest love poetry in the world has been produced by Christians.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, ch. 5

Believing on Authority

Ninety-nine per cent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I have not seen it myself. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there must be such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Those He Justifies, He Sanctifies

For we dream neither of a faith devoid of good works nor of a justification that stands without them. This alone is of importance: having admitted that faith and good works must cleave together, we still lodge justification in faith, not in works. We have a ready explanation for doing this, provided we turn to Christ to whom our faith is directed an from who it receives its full strength.

Why, then, are we justified by faith? Because by faith we grasp Christ's righteousness, by which alone we are reconciled to God. Yet you could not grasp this without at the same time grasping sanctification also. For he "is given unto us for righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption" [1 Cor. 1:30]. Therefore Christ justifies no one whom he does not at the same time sanctify. These benefits are joined together by an everlasting and indissoluble bond, so that those whom he illumines by his wisdom, he redeems; those whom he redeems, he justifies; those whom he justifies, he sanctifies.

John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book III, Ch. XVI

The Art of Copiousness

I know of people who had the habit of learning lists of synonyms by heart, so that any one of a set of words could be brought quickly to mind, and also, if they used one, and found they needed it again soon after, they could avoid the repetition by selecting another with the same meaning. This is a childish occupation, a mark of effort ill-spent, and not even particularly useful; it simply assembles a crown of words, out of which the speaker can snatch the nearest without any discrimination.

What we have to do is to acquire our stock with judgement, aiming at forceful oratory, not the patter of a street trader. And we shall achieve this by reading and hearing the best models. By taking this trouble, we shall learn not only the words for things but which words are best in each place.

- Quintilian, The Orator's Education, Book 10, 257.

We are God's

We are God's: let us therefore live for him and die for him. We are God's: let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal. O, how much has that man profited who, having been taught that he is not his own, has taken away dominion and rule from his own reason that he may yield it to God!

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book III, CH. VII.1

Calvinism and Capitalism

Christopher Hill summarizes thus the difference between Protestant and catholic attitudes: 'Successful medieval businessmen died with feelings of guilt, and left the money to the church to be put to unproductive uses. Successful Protestant businessmen were no longer ashamed of their productive activities whilst alive, and at death left money to help others to imitate them.' Protestantism, then, generated the psychological preconditions essential to the development of modern capitalism.

A Life of John Calvin, Alister E. McGrath, 224

The Beauty Within

If you have beauty it has passed me by;
I take but slightest interest in such things,
But rather I possess the keenest eye
For what's inside - a mind unwavering,
A rich intellect, and greater than mine,
Though I feel no jealousy, but adore
A beautiful wit; amazing design
That warms my heart and cuts it to the core.
Now I clearly see your handsome features,
And fool was I to ignore such brilliance
As becomes glad nature's finest creatures;
Now will I seek your heart with every sense.
If I ever your great beauty ignored,
Let now my dull senses return restored.

By Paul Vest

The Power of Oratory

I cannot imagine how the founders of cities would have made a homeless multitude come together to form a people, had they not moved them by their skillful speech, or how legislators would have succeeded in restraining mankind in the servitude of the law, had they not had the highest gifts of oratory. The very guiding principles of life, however intrinsically honourable they are, nevertheless possess more power to shape men's minds when the brilliance of eloquence illumines the beauty of the subject.

Quintilian, The Orator's Education, book II, ch. 16

Espoire d'Azûre

Ah! Quelle regard d'un azûre si intense
Ces yeux hypnotiques qui me tente, me tourmente
Un océan si profond--ah! je m'y perd!
Mais son sourire doré me ramène sur terre.

By Deborah R. Foucachon, 2001

Pleasure in Good

It was a gift of Providence to mankind that the truly good should give us the greater pleasure.

Quintilian, The Orator's Education, book I

Love Will Ascend

Love will ascend in unexpected ways
Like the heart-throbbing gleam of the moon's
Bright rays, as it touches your
Heart... slowly... the flame starts to glow as
Your heart starts to know of a growing
Devotion that will transform and transplant
You; to become one in soul--a rare treasure
Most forgotten, to share common passions
And share the same view, and sharing one
Father; these things will fast mend any
Disparity between me and you.
The outwardly perfect match is irrelevent
Indeed when two hearts remain forever divided
In two. But if each heart may be willing to
Give unhindered to the other, then those
Two shall forever be true.
Such love remains my oriflamme;
This is my wish--it is now what I am.

by Deborah R. Foucachon, 2001

Quintilian Quote

Give me a boy who is encouraged by praise, pleased by success, and who cries when he has lost. He is the one who will be nourished by ambition, hurt by reproof, and excited by honour. In him I shall never have to fear laziness.

Quintilian, The Orator's Education, book I, ch. 3

Tragedy in perspective

Have you ever noticed how close laughter and tears are to one another in little children? They can shift straight from one to the other without any transition. Rather than living on opposite ends of the spectrum, comedy and tragedy are close neighbors. Comedy is just tragedy in perspective.

Ben Merkle, credenda Agenda; weather

Not a Tame Lion

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. he's the King, I tell you."

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, ch. 8

Picture of Christ

"In the home, the husband is a picture of Christ. But if he shows no initiative in loving, teaching, or admonishing, he is a lying picture of Christ. In other words, each husband, every day, is talking about Christ through his behavior. What he says is either a truth or a lie, but he cannot be silent."

-Doug Wilson, Standing on the Promises, 17

No Time

"We are always falling in love, or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve knowledge are those who seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come."

-C.S. Lewis

Hill Abbey

The Holiday of Stuff

This is the first Lord’s Day of Advent, the year of our Lord, 2005. This is the beginning of the church year, marking annually, as we do, the beginning of our salvation in the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

We are marking our days, building up to one of the great Christian holidays. This is a potent holiday, one that secularists appear to understand better than we sometimes do. They want to stamp out any vestige of the historic Christian faith in this, and their secularist jihad is not irrational. They know how powerful this story is. This being the case, let us make a point of telling the story right, and very loudly.

In the first place, do not fall for the lie that the spirit of Christmas is an ethereal kind of thing. This is the celebration of the Incarnation, when the eternal Logos of God took on a material body, which He still has. Do not, therefore, join in the general lamentations about "materialism." This is a celebration of God taking on a material body. It is therefore a holiday that should focus on stuff.

By stuff, I mean ribbons, decorations, fudge, wreaths, cider, presents, feasting, toasts, shopping with joy, putting up a tree, sending cards, learning a Christmas piece on the piano, and more fudge.

Of course, we all know how to sin with stuff—we were living in a pretty earthy state of sin before Christ came. But He did not come to whisk us out of this world in order that we might go celebrate some kind of Gnostic holiday in heaven. We are to honor the Lord Jesus with our stuff. So do not drink too much, do not run up your credit cards, and don’t try to buy friends with presents.

But God’s answer to sin begins with the Incarnation. We do not escape from sin by denying, or trying to deny, His method for saving us. Our salvation lies in receiving, resting, accepting, and imitating. And how do we imitate? One thing we must do is use stuff.

- Doug Wilson, 11/27/05

Encore un peu de Cyrano

Ah! non! c'est un peu court, jeune homme!
On pouvait dire. . .Oh!.... . .bien des choses en somme. . .
En variant le ton,--par exemple, tenez
Agressif 'Moi, monsieur, si j'avais un tel nez
Il faudrait sur-le-champ que je me l'amputasse!'
Amical 'Mais il doit tremper dans votre tasse!
Pour boire, faites-vous fabriquer un hanap!'
Descriptif 'C'est un roc!. . .c'est un pic!. . .c'est un cap!
Que dis-je, c'est un cap?. . .C'est une peninsule!'
(keep reading...)

-Cyrano de Bergerac

Un Grand Nez

"Attendu qu'un grand nez est proprement l'indice
D'un homme affable, bon, courtois, spirituel,
Liberal, courageux, tel que je suis, et tel
Qu'il vous est interdit a jamais de vous croire..."

-Cyrano De Bergerac

Thus Whatever we have...

Now this consecration ought to be such that we should dedicate ourselves both in body and soul to God as temples and spiritual sacrifices, so that our minds should be God's (to know him), our wills to worship him, our affections to love him, our eyes to contemplate his wonders, our ears to hear his voice, our mouths to celebrate his glory, our hands to do his work and all our members to be instruments of righteousness unto God for his glory. Thus whatever we have either good or honorable or wise or virtuous ought to be devoted to the glory and worship of God.

-Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology Vol. II, 183-4

Educated Wits

What intelligence! What scholarship! It takes educated wits to believe such things about Christ, while refusing to believe in Christ.

-St. Augustine, City of God

(b. 18, ch 54)

Beware Young Women Who...

“Beware of young women who love neither wine nor truffles nor cheese nor music.”

-Colette

Drunken Poet

A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom--he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.

-E.B. White

What Faith Does

The Lord's Table

The Table of the Lord humbles the honest, comforts the distraught, forgives the repentant, nourishes the hungry, establishes the church, preaches the gospel, summons the world, and overwhelms the devil.

And of course the Table as a mere set of physical objects does none of those things—any more than the Word of God, considered simply as paper and ink, does such things.

When the preached Word pierces the heart of a treacherous or hypocritical Christian, and he repents, no one thinks to attribute the power of the Word to the fact that it was leather-bound, and When some poor forsaken sinner picks up a Gideon Bible in a hotel somewhere, and turns to Christ, no one thinks it was the power of the binding, or paper, or publishing house. We attribute it all to the power and goodness of God, who moves and works through such things.

In the same way, as the Supper of the Lord deals with us—rebuking us, strengthening us, admonishing us, revealing our sin, establishing us in love for one another—no one in their right mind would attribute the power of this to the grocery store where we bought the wine, or the bakery where we obtained the bread. And neither is the power to be found in the bread or the wine. These things correspond exactly to the paper and ink of the Scriptures.

What are they apart from faith? The letter kills, but the Spirit brings life. Words as words bring nothing but condemnation. Bread as bread, wine as mere wine, are nothing but a ministry of death. What are they apart from faith alone? They are nothing but increasing condemnation.

As so, as children of faith, you are summoned to come. You are summoned so that your evangelical faith would be nourished and strengthened by the bread and wine, not replaced by the bread and wine. When faith comes to the Table, faith is always an essential part of the picture.

-Doug Wilson September 4th, 2005

Reply to Replies

"And yet, will we ever come to an end of discussion and talk if we think we must always reply to replies?"

St. Augustine, City of God

Presidents unrecongnized

It is quite likely that most of the first fifteen presidents of the United States would not have been recognized had they passed the average citizen in the street... to think about those men was to think about what they had written, to judge them by their public positions, their arguments, their knowledge as codified in the printed word."

-Neil Postman
Amusing Ourselves to Death

'Gentlemen'

"An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say 'Gentlemen' to the person with whom he is conversing."

-Alexis de Tocqueville

Vassal and Noble Alike

"The invention of firearms equalized the vassal and the noble on the field of battle; the art of printing opened the same resources to the minds of all classes; the post brought knowledge alike to the door of the cottage and to the gate of the palace."

-Alexis de Tocqueville

Readers

"The poorest labourer upon the shore of the Delaware thinks himself entitled to deliver his sentiment in matters of religion or politics with as much freedom as the gentleman or scholar... Such is the preavailing taste for books of every kind, that almost every man is a reader."

-1772, Jacob Duche
quoted by Neil Postman in his book, Amusing ourselves to Death

Those Frenchies

"We seek him here, we seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven?--Is he in hell?
That demmed elusive Pimpernel.

Baroness Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel

Sonnet 116 - Shakespeare

SONNET 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

-Shakespeare

Wisdom of the Puritans

"The carnal mind sees God in nothing, not even in spiritual things, THe spiritual mind sees Him in everything, even in natural things...."
-Robert Leighton

"As the apple is not the cause of the apple tree, but a fruit of it: even so good works are not the cause of our savlation, but a sign and fruit of the same."
-Daniel Cawdray

"Take God into thy counsel. Heaven overlooks hell. God at any time can tell thee what plots are hatching there against thee."
-William Gurnall

"If God were not my friend, Satan would not be so much my enemy."
-Thomas Brooks

Pray often

Pray often; for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.
-John Bunyan

American Expansion

"The conclusion of the Spanish-American War left the United States with an overseas empire. The nations of Europe watched to see if the United States would exploit her newly acquired possessions for her own economic benefit, without regard for the good of the peoples in the possessed lands. Instead, the American Republic began a program of building, developing, and benefiting her her newly aquired regions of the world. America bestowed upon her possessions new health and sanitation programs, new standards of education, new financial opportunities, and a generally higher level of civilization. In a series of steps, each new possession came to enjoy new levels of self-government. Most important of all, wherever the American flag went, it was followed by Christian missionaries who took the gospel to the native people. "

-United States History: Heritage of Freedom p.436

Delight in Disorder - Robert Herrick

A sweet disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness.
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction;
An erring lace, which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher;
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbands to flow confusedly;
A winning wave, deserving note,
In the tempestuous petticoat;
A careless shoestring, in whose tie
I see a wild civility;--
Do more bewitch me, than when art
Is too precise in every part.

-Robert Herrick

Charles Spurgeon

Remember, sinner, it is not your hold of Christ that saves you--it is Christ; it is not your joy in Christ that saves you--it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that is the instrument--it is Christ's blood and merits; therefore, look not to your hope, but to Christ the source of hope; look not to your faith, but to Christ, the author and finisher of your faith; and if you do that, ten thousand devils cannot throw you down. There is one thing which we all too much confuse in our preaching, namely the great truthy that it is not prayer, it is not faith, it is not our doings, it is not our feelingsupon which we must trust--butupon Christ, and on Christ alone. We are apt to think that we are not in a right state, that we do not feel enough, instead of remembering that our business is not with self, but with Christ. Let me beseech you, look only to Christ; never expect deliverance from yourself, from ministers, or from any means of any kind apart from Christ; keep your eye simply on Him; let His death, His agonies, His groans, His sufferings, His merits, His glories, His intercession, be fresh upon your mind; when you wake in the morning look to Him; when you lie down at night look for Him.

-Charles Spurgeon
from one of his early sermons

hat-tip: Spurgeon - Heir of hte Puritans, by Ernest W. Bacon, p. 86

Macbeth

Murderer: Where is your husband?
Lady Macduff: I hope, in no place so unsanctified
Where such as thou mayst find him.
Murderer: He's a traitor
Son: Thou liest, thou shag-ear'd villain.
Murderer: What, you egg?

Standing Taller

A man rarely stands taller than when he stands for a lady.

- Doug Wilson

Terry Schiavo

As we speak, by order of the court, Terry Schiavo is being starved to death in Florida. But there are other victims, among them the godly use of words. When men want to obscure their lusts, or hide their greed, they always create a fog of words. Obscure, deny, lie, evade, change, slice, spin, and counterattack.

All this to say something that should be obvious -- food is not medical treatment. We are not talking about a genuinely difficult ethical dilemma created by some marvel of medical technology. There are times when some artificial means of keeping a body alive are a form of doctors trying to play God. But giving someone food does not fall into that category. The standard here is not life, or death. The standard is always found in answer to the question, "Who do we think we are? God? Or men answerable to God?"

The court is not "letting Terry die," and this is what I meant when I said these scoundrels are doing more than just killing her. They are murdering words so that they may do as they please with men and women. Withholding food is not "letting someone die." Smothering Terry with a pillow would not be "letting her body take its natural course when oxygen is not present." And inability to follow an argument of this nature is a profound moral failing.

-Douglas Wilson (3/22/05)

True Compassion

True compassion and love for people is doing good to them in a personal way whenever possible. False humanitareanism promises love that is done at a distance in an impersonal way. This false humanitarianism has created a system of wealth redistribution that steals from several classes of citizens to create another class of citizens that becomes dependent upon constant bureaucratic handouts. The Bible places the responsibility to care for the poor in the hands of God's people at the local level where the potential for an uncontrolled bureaucracy can be alleviated.

-I foud this in "draft," for some reason I never posted it. I also forget where I got it, but I think it's from God and Governement, by Gary DeMar.

Liberty Assumes an Appeal to Law

"But liberty always implies a standard, and this standard always brings with it an antithesis. This means that he who says 'free from' must also assert a specified 'free to.' A man cannot turn away from something without simultaneously turning to something. Liberty always assumes an appeal to law"

Douglas Wilson - Future Men

President William McKinley

"The more profoundly we study this wonderful book [the Bible], and the more closely we observe its divine precepts, the better citizens we will become and the higher will be our destiny as a nation. "

-William McKinley
25^th President

President McKinley, not wanting to leave his invalid wife to do the traditional campaigning around the country, conducted his whole campaign from the front porch of his home in Canton, Ohio. People from around the country would come to his home to hear him speak. McKinley won that election!

Hat-Tip: United States history - Heritage of Freedom

President Cleveland 's Famous Veto

While President Cleveland was in office, a portion of the state of Texas had undergone a drought. Congress proposed a bill that would give the people of that region the modest, yet effective sum of $10,000 for seed. On February 17, 1887, President Cleveland vetoed that bill saying:
____________

"It is the represented that a long-continued and extensive drought has existed in certain portions of the State of Texas, resulting in a failure of crops, and consequent distress and destitution.

Though there has been some difference in statements concerning the extent of the people's needs in the localities thus affected, there seems to be no doubt that there has existed a condition calling for relief; and I am willing to believe that, notwithstanding the aid already furnished, a donation of seed grain to the farmers located in this region, to enable them to put in new crops, would serve to avert a continuence or return of unfortunate blight.

And yet I feel obliged to withhold my approval of the plan, as proposed by this bill, to indulge a benevolent and charitable sentiment through the appropriation of public funds for that purpose.
I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit.

A prevalent tendency to disregard this limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government the Government should not support the people.

The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.

President Cleveland - 1887

Hat-Tip: United States History - Heritage of Freedom

Founding Mission Statement of Harvard College (1643)

Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed, to consider well that the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.

Hat-Tip

God's Faithfulness to His People

And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing unto Zion ; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
- Isaiah 35:10

for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again,
but the wicked are brought down by calamity.
-Provers 24:16

Decentralization

The early church was able to grow and have influence because it was decentralized. When the Christians were persecuted in Jerusalem, they moved on to Judea and Samaria (Acts 8:1-6). Even Rome, the center of apostate political power, was populated with Christians. Spain was next in Paul's missionary plans (Romans 15:28). The decentralized church was the growing and elusive church. No political power on earth could curtail its efforts. Christians, because ultimately they serve God, take their religion with them wherever they go. Families no longer look to the state for care. Education is seen as a parental responsibility. Statist education is opposed. Alternative educational establishments are constructed. Care for the needy is seen as a Christian responsibility and not the obligation or right of the state. There was little need for "fair" business laws because Christian employers treated their employees with dignity, as individuals created in the image of God. These early Christians were persecuted for their "individualistic" beliefs, but with the Roman Empire crumbling around them, in time, Christians found themselves in positions of power and authority.

Gary DeMar - God and Government Vol II, page 70

Dominion Covenant

The created order is to be studied and cultivated to bring forth its God-ordained potentialities, all for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. This includes agriculture, astronomy, engineering, architecture, navigation, medicine, biology, science, aviation, physics, music, industry, education, horticulture, athletics, economics, politics, health, law, and every conceivable creational endeavor.

-Gary DeMar - God and Government Vol. II, p. 63-64

"Capitalism and Communism stand at opposite poles. Their essential difference is this: The Communist, seeing the rich man and his fine home, says: 'No Man should have so much.' the capitalist, seeing the same thing, says: 'All men should have as much.'"
-Phelps Adams

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich."
-Abraham Lincoln

"The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidze it."
-Ronald Reagan

No Such Thing as Luck

As we labor in our various callings and businesses, we have to remember that there is no such thing as luck. Neither good luck nor bad luck exists. The fortune that one man experiences and another man misses are not the result of a giant lottery in the sky. This is just another way of saying that the universe, all of it, is personal. We live and move and have our being in the triune God of Scripture, who governs everything, and He does this on a personal basis. He does not operate through the impersonal machinery of "natural law."

Not all those who believe in chance are willing to say that they believe in chance. It is easy to pay lip service to the catechism truth that the personal and triune God governs all things. But a very carnal desire lies deep within many hearts, and this is the desire to have blessings come to us in a way that is detached from personal obedience or disobedience. If the world is governed by chance, then it is "just possible" that the ball might bounce my way even if I am being disobedient. This is why men and women who will not let go of certain sins are such tenacious believers in luck. It is their only shot.

That this demeanor is thriving very well in modern America can be seen in the growth industry of casinos. These institutionalized houses of worship are dedicated to obtaining the favor of Fortuna, a goddess who really doesn’t care how you have been behaving lately. And this is why gambling is not a sin of excess (like drinking or eating too much). In its sinful form, it is actually a species of false worship.

But in the biblical worldview, God either blesses the work of our hands, or He does not, and whichever He does, He is always personal with it. For those who love Him, blessings and setbacks are alike long-term blessings. For those who do not, And nothing about it is governed in the slightest degree by chance.

-Douglas Wilson

"Recession is when your neighbor loses his job; depression is when you lose yours."
-Harry S. Truman

"Money is a good servant but a bad master."
-Francis Bacon

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, learning from failure."
-Colin Powell

The Elixir - by George Herbert

Teach me, my God and my King,
In all things thee to see,
And what I do in any thing,
To do it as for thee:


Not rudely, as a beast,
To runne into an action;
But still to make thee prepossest,
And give it his perfection.


A man that looks on glasse,
On it may stay his eye;
Or if he pleaseth, through it passe,
And then the haev'n espie.


All may of thee partake:
nothing can be so mean,
Which with his tincture (for thy sake)
Will not grow bright and clean.


A servant with this clause
Makes drudgerie divine:
Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws,
Makes that and th' action fine.


This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold:
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for lesse be told.

"National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice."
-Samuel Smiles

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
-Winston Churchill

"Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon."
-Winston Churchill

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that know not victory nor defeat.'
Theodore Roosevelt"

They tell us, Sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.

Three millions of People, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, Sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone. It is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable. and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!

It is in vain, Sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that Gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery! Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
-Patrick Henry

We just got back from Idaho. Idaho is a beautiful state, with rolling hills and a lot of open space! Our ten days were very filled, but GREAT!

"If men were angels, government would not be necessary."
-James Madison

The American School of Lyon

This speech, delivered by Francis Foucachon, explains the reasons behind the closing of The American School of Lyon.

TASOL Graduation
May 28th, 2004

The French man, Alexis De Tocqueville.( 1805-1859), was very impressed by America. Here is what he said:

" I sought for the greatness and genious of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers-- and it was not there...in her fertile fields and boundless forests--and it was not there...in her rich mines and her vast world commerce--and it was not there...in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution--and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genious and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

What Alexis De Tocqueville discovered about America is what The American School Of Lyon has been all about. We came to do good to the city of Lyon. As a Presbyterian minister, I came back to Lyon to serve my native city in Christ's name. We wanted to meet a need of the city. We discovered that there was indeed a great need for an American School. ADERLY told us that many businesses had turned down offers to come to the Lyon region because there was not an American School here to meet the needs of their children.

For our project of an American school to succeed, we needed three things:

1. A building: The Mayor of Lyon, Raymond Barre, and the COURLY gave us this beautiful facility free of charge for the first three years.
2. Support from ADERLY, and by extension, support from the major foreign corporations of Lyon. We had that for the first three years.
3. Financial support from outside France. The Presbyterian Church in America invested an average of 500,000 euros a year in The American School Of Lyon for you.
In return, we guaranteed a quality American education, with the understanding that it would be given from a historical Christian world-and-life view. We did exactly what we promised to do.

We took great risks and sacrificed much as an outpouring of Jesus-Christ's love for you and your children. There was no self-interest in this, but only a desire to do good to the city of Lyon in Christ's name.

Today, we want to celebrate the goodness of God through American Christians who brought good to the city of Lyon,
and by extension, brought good to you and your children.
As we did good to you, we were blessed in returned.
Just to name a few things:

• Over and over, parents have thanked us for what TASOL did for their children. Their letters and kind words blessed us.
• Many students came to TASOL not speaking any English at all, but they succeeded, catching up with their class and, sometimes, they passed the others. It blessed us.
• Others came with a terrible French school experience, and these kids blossomed in our school. This blessed us.
• I heard many teachers saying that their students were upset because vacation was coming; they preferred to be in school at TASOL. This blessed us.
• Some parents could not afford to pay the tuition, and we took them anyway, giving them scholarships. It blessed us.
• A few of our students had learning disabilities. We loved them, trained them, and patiently brought them to the point were they found hope again. This blessed us.
• Many students came as sceptics with a very pesimistic world- and-life view, and they found a new hope in life because of Christ. This blessed us.
  
  As we look back , we realize that our staff was also blessed in different ways.
  
• Ten out of the 65 people who came to serve in TASOL over the past five years found their life partner in the school.
• Our staff will never be the same, having grown from being with people from 22 different nations. What a learning experience !
  
  TASOL was doing very well.
  
• We were just about to receive full accreditation from ACSI, ECIS and ACCS.
• Student enrollment was going up.
• TASOL was about to start the process for the International Baccalaureat program .
• Our building needed repairs, and the COURLY was going to take care of those.
• We were just starting to have exchanges with the Sainte-Foy community, to build bridges between countries to foster better understanding and appreciation for each other.
• Because the Christian curriculum was an issue for a few parents, we even changed to a public school curriculum, although keeping our Christian standards. We were satisfying an increasing number of parents.
  
  So why is TASOL closing ?
  
  It boils down to one reason --
  The opening of the International School of Lyon, supported by Renault V.I. , Bridon/Bayer Cropscience and Monsanto, and the fact that the students from these companies represent about half of our student body. There is not room for two similar schools in Lyon.
  Why did these Companies, supported by our former partner ADERLY, want to start their own school ?
  
  For one reason: It's because we were a Christian school, though we carefully respected each person from other religions and beliefs. We changed our Christian curriculum to a public school curriculum, but this was not enough, and these companies decided to start their school, one that is without any religious connotation.
  I won't get into the recent debate about " La laicite " in France and how neutrality is a myth -- but I will say one thing: TASOL offered the best education you can get. Our aim was a complete education, training the mind, the body, and the soul. If you remove the spiritual dimension from education, you create narrow-minded thinking that can lead to all kinds of political, religious or ethnic fanaticism. The education that we gave at TASOL presented our Judeo-Christian heritage as the foundation of Western civilisation, but also taught other religious beliefs, thereby broadening the minds of our students,-- and giving them the possibility of a TRUE choice.
  
  
  I know most of you went to battle to stop the closing of our school, and I want to thank you for your support.
  Some of you reported that you heard lies about us, and I pray that you know in your heart that they were lies.
  Some of you are leaving Lyon because of the closing of TASOL, and I'm very sorry for that.
  
  We are sad that the school is closing. However, we are not depressed. We are grateful for what God has done -- for the good education that your children have received, and for how they have been loved as they probably will never be loved by teachers again. We are grateful for our teachers, our director, our principal and our administrators. We have all been blessed to serve you in Christ's name for five years, and I hope that you have been as blessed as we were.
  
  For those of you who studied Latin, remember these words:
  
  " SCRIBITUR AD NARRANDUM,
  NON AD PROBANDUM."
  
  " We write history to tell what happened, and not to prove anything"
  
  I hope that history will tell that TASOL did good to the city of Lyon in Christ's name. If the history books don't, our God will !
  
  In all the injust things that happened with the closing of the school, please know that we did not seek revenge, although it would have been easy to do so.
  
  We returned good for evil.
  
  

When we knew we had to close TASOL, we helped the process for the new school. A special thanks to Mark Guthrie for that.

Our lawyer is a specialist in " Le droit du travail." We could have used the law ( article L 122-12 alinea 2 du code du travail), to impose on the new school to hire our staff. We chose not to do this because the Bible says: " Do unto others what you would have them do to you." Therefore, we assumed the financial responsibility for our staff.

We will continue to help the best we can the new International School of Lyon as they take possession of our facilities July 1st.
We have already sent new student applications for TASOL to
them.


Alexis De Trocqueville discovered that America was great because it was good. And it was good because of what Christ can do in an individual life.

The good of TASOL is not in us.
It is in Christ, the only perfectly Good One.
As Man, He died for our sins.
As God, He rose from the dead to give us a new life,
the life that made TASOL a blessing to the city of Lyon,

May God bless TASOL's staff and teachers as they move on to continue to serve Christ in other parts of the World,
and may God bless you and your children.




Rev. Francis Foucachon
Founder and President of the
American School Of Lyon

For Christians, the life and death of Jesus are the ultimate expressions of love, and the supreme demonstrations of God's mercy, faithfulness, and redemption. Since Christ's miraculous Resurrection on Easter, more than 2,000 years ago, Christians have expressed joy and gratitude for this wondrous sacrifice and for God's promise of freedom for the oppressed, healing for the brokenhearted, and salvation.
--George W. Bush